Christian Benteke has suffered a serious achilles tendon injury in training that has wrecked the remainder of his season at Aston Villa and the dream of representing Belgium at the World Cup finals. The striker will also find that the suitors hoping to prise him from Villa Park in the summer, chief among them Tottenham Hotspur, may look elsewhere.

Benteke went down in training on Thursday, as the team prepared for the home Premier League match against Fulham on Saturday, and scans have revealed a rupture that will require surgery and an absence of at least six months.

"It's a terrible blow both for Christian and for the club," Paul Lambert, the Villa manager, said. "He will miss the rest of the season, obviously, and also the World Cup. But he'll work hard because that's what he does and he'll come back for us stronger than ever next season."

Benteke proved to be one of the signings of last season after his £7m move from Genk, scoring 23 goals for Villa, 19 of them in the league and, although his numbers have dropped in this campaign – he has 10 league goals, plus one in the Capital One Cup – he was likely to have been a hot transfer property in the summer window.

Tottenham have scouted him extensively and they were preparing to test Villa's strong resolve to keep him. They want fresh blood up front, particularly after the decision to sell Jermain Defoe to FC Toronto at the end of February left them with only two established strikers – Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado. But Benteke will begin instead on the long road back to fitness.

Benteke has held a regular starting place for Belgium, who face South Korea, Algeria and Russia in the group stage at the World Cup finals. That is likely to mean greater involvement in Brazil for his Belgium team-mate Romelu Lukaku, another £20m-rated striker Tottenham have inquired about signing from Chelsea although Everton, with whom he is currently on a season-long loan, are determined to secure him on a permanent deal.

Lukaku has thrived under Roberto Martínez at Goodison Park, scoring 12 goals in 24 Premier League appearances to fire the club's Champions League challenge and they would take a bold step towards a top-four finish if they could beat Arsenal at home on Sunday. Lukaku's ambition is to play Champions League football and if Everton were to qualify, the associated financial boost could help them to finance a deal.

"I'm looking for a club for Romelu," the 20-year-old's agent, Christophe Henrotay, said. "And yes, I've talked to Daniel Levy [the Tottenham chairman] once but that doesn't mean Romelu will definitely join Spurs. That's not a talking point at this moment. There aren't 20 teams that can afford to buy Romelu. He won't go from Everton to, let's say, Swansea. There's also a difference between Everton that plays against relegation and an Everton that fights for European football."

Everton's push to beat Tottenham to Lukaku this summer could be aided by the bad blood between Chelsea and Spurs at boardroom level. It goes back to Levy's refusal to entertain Chelsea's offer for the midfielder Luka Modric in 2011 and it was evident again last summer in the fight to sign the attacking midfielder Willian from Anzhi Makhachkala. Chelsea won, and they revelled in snatching the player from under Tottenham's noses.